FDR, faced with America’s worst economic crisis, didn’t know what to do. He threw spaghetti at the wall to see what would stick. Some ideas spawned by his “brain trust” were failures; others, like Social Security, were spectacular successes. Before the economy had recovered, [...]
Archive for the ‘Economics’ Category
August 5th, 2020 - 5:04 pm § in Economics
Higher grocery prices aren’t your imagination
“Grocery prices have skyrocketed during the coronavirus pandemic,” CNBC says (read story here). I’ll bet you’ve noticed. I have. I’m talking about grocery prices, not your total food spending, which may be less if you ate out a lot until Covid-19 closed the restaurants.[...]
The fight over unemployment benefits
Mailing a letter the other day, I saw a “Help Wanted” sign in the post office window, for jobs starting at $17.59 an hour. Some quick math in my head and that’s about $700 a week, which is maybe $600 of take-home after taxes. Here in Washington, a person who earned $700 a week befo[...]
Sizing up Trump’s presidency
Trump’s supporters are people with grievances who want a disruptor, and that’s what we got when they elected him. His presidency is all about upending the way things were done. That’s not a good thing, because there were good reasons for doing things that way, before he started bre[...]
June 22nd, 2020 - 4:48 pm § in Economics
America’s next housing crisis
With more than 20 million Americans still unemployed, and eviction moratoriums about to expire, America faces a new housing crisis. Millions of households suffering income loss from Covid-19 can’t pay rent. Moratoriums and one-time stimulus payments provided some temporary, short-lived relief;[...]
April 15th, 2020 - 12:09 am § in Economics, Environment
What the wealthy buy … in Norway!
BELIEVE IT OR NOT .. NORWAY HAS FOLKS WITH MEGA WEALTH In a world with really welathy folks, Paul Allen and his 100 meter long Octopussy is a mere tender to really great yachts. Now the Emirates’ sheik owned Azzam’s six-year reign as the world’s largest superyacht is coming to an end. S[...]
Senate passes $2 trillion relief bill; House to vote Friday
The Senate passed, 96-0, late Wednesday a $2 trillion bill that provides cash payments to individuals and households, assistance to small businesses, corporate bailouts, enhanced unemployment benefits, money for hospitals, aid to state and local governments, and student provisions. Read the details [...]
March 22nd, 2020 - 3:36 pm § in Economics
How to correctly interpret this “stock market crash”
When you buy stock, you become a part-owner of the company, but in practical terms you’re buying a share of the company’s future earnings. The market prices of shares continually fluctuate, and at any given time, they’re worth whatever investors are willing to pay for them. This is[...]
March 19th, 2020 - 9:22 pm § in Economics
$$$ McConnell’s Helicopter Money
How Much Will You Get ??? Right now, this is only a proposal, but if legislated in its present form, there would be a single payment of $1,200 for each adult plus $500 for each child for: Individual taxpayers whose adjusted gross income (AGI) on their 2018 tax return was $75,000 or less; Joint filer[...]
March 15th, 2020 - 3:19 pm § in Economics
BREAKING NEWS: The Fed acts to shore up economy
Rate cuts, QE, other actions are similar to 2008; stock futures drop, triggering trading halt Reacting to the coronavirus emergency, the Federal Reserve announced Sunday it’s cutting interest rates to zero, launching a $700 billion QE (quantitative easing) program, and cutting commercial banks[...]